Dirhodium catalysts have been employed as catalysts in a variety of chemical reactions. One of the major drawbacks of using dirhodium catalysts is the expense of rhodium metal. Typically, to overcome the costs associated with catalysts containing expensive metals, two approaches can be used: (i) increasing the efficiency (e.g., turnover number and/or turnover rate) of the catalyst and/or (ii) recovering the spent catalyst from the reaction mixture so that the expensive metal can be separated and recycled. Neither approach has had much success with chiral dirhodium catalysts.
The present invention is directed to dirhodium catalyst compositions in which a dirhodium catalyst is attached to a solid support, for example, to facilitate recovery of spent catalyst from a reaction mixture.